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3232Tinder fires its head of comms, following her participation in a $2 billion lawsuit against Matchhttp://techietricks.com/tinder-fires-its-head-of-comms-following-her-participation-in-a-2-billion-lawsuit-against-match/
http://techietricks.com/tinder-fires-its-head-of-comms-following-her-participation-in-a-2-billion-lawsuit-against-match/#respondWed, 19 Dec 2018 06:51:13 +0000http://techietricks.com/tinder-fires-its-head-of-comms-following-her-participation-in-a-2-billion-lawsuit-against-match/Multiple Tinder employees who sued the dating app’s parent company, Match Group, for $2 billion were fired this week, a source close to the employees tells The Verge. Among them is Rosette Pambakian, VP of marketing and communications, who, in the original lawsuit, claimed that former Tinder CEO Greg Blatt sexually assaulted her. Match spokeswoman …

Multiple Tinder employees who sued the dating app’s parent company, Match Group, for $2 billion were fired this week, a source close to the employees tells The Verge. Among them is Rosette Pambakian, VP of marketing and communications, who, in the original lawsuit, claimed that former Tinder CEO Greg Blatt sexually assaulted her. Match spokeswoman Justine Sacco wouldn’t confirm the names of the employees affected, but did say a “number” of employees, including Pambakian, were let go because they were “unable to fulfill their job responsibilities.”

The company initially placed these employees on administrative leave in August, which meant they weren’t allowed to work, but continued being paid. Since being fired, Pambakian sent an email to Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg and Tinder CEO Elie Seidman, saying she was subjected to “ongoing intimidation and retaliation” designed to “pressure [her] into resigning.” The Verge received a copy of this email from a source close to Pambakian, which we’ve published at the bottom of this article.

The email also says the firing had to do with Pambakian’s sexual harassment claims against Blatt and that she was never interviewed about those claims. She writes, “You told the world that a sham investigation (in which I was never even interviewed) determined the assault was some sort of ‘consensual cuddling’—as if there could by anything consensual about a CEO groping his subordinate in front of other employees after making sexually explicit comments throughout the evening of a company holiday party.” She also claims that Match fired her a day before her options vested. She mentions an arbitration agreement, which forced her to withdraw from Tinder co-founder Sean Rad’s lawsuit, and that she “refused to sign a non-disparagement agreement presented to me by HR, which would have prevented me from speaking publicly about my experience in exchange for compensation.”

Ginsberg responded to Pambakian’s email in her own email, which we’ve also published below. In it, she rejects Pambakian’s retaliation allegations and reiterates that the company investigated Blatt and prior sexual harassment claims. Pambakian, she says, never filed a sexual harassment claim in the first place. “I was not the CEO at the time, but I know you were interviewed on at least two separate occasions and you never alleged sexual harassment,” she writes.

She goes on to say that Pambakian’s options “have already been accelerated, and should be exercisable in your account, along with the other equity awards that have vested since August,” and says that the arbitration agreement is standard and “there is no NDA in them and we never tried to force you to sign a non-disparagement agreement. You’re free to talk about anything publicly that you’d like.”

Much of this correspondence has already played out in public. Match responded to Pambakian’s sexual harassment allegations in the lawsuit around the time of filing and said it “conducted a careful and thorough investigation under the direction of independent Board members, concluded, among other things, that there was no violation of law or company policy, and took appropriate action.”

The lawsuit itself centers on the allegation that Match purposely undervalued Tinder in an effort to avoid paying lots of cash to the original team, but it’s unclear what involvement Pambakian will have going forward as she had to withdraw.

Rosette’s email:

Dear Mandy,

Six years ago I wrote the very first press release for Tinder. Since then, I’ve poured my heart and soul into this company and helped grow it into a global phenomenon and top-grossing app. I was the youngest and longest-standing female executive at the company. I love Tinder. And I love my colleagues. But you have now fired me from a company I was so proud to build in blatant retaliation for joining a group of colleagues and Tinder’s original founding members in a lawsuit against Match and IAC, standing up for our rights, calling out the company’s CEO Greg for sexual misconduct, and confronting the company about covering up what happened to me.

While I truly hoped that decency and professionalism would prevail and that you would let me return to work, I knew that was probably unlikely when I was placed on leave the very day the lawsuit was filed and you continued to defend the actions of the executive that I spoke out against. Rather than acknowledge the truth and condemn his actions, you chalked it up it to “bad judgment.” To make matters worse, you told the world that a sham investigation (in which I was never even interviewed) determined the assault was some sort of “consensual cuddling”—as if there could by anything consensual about a CEO groping his subordinate in front of other employees after making sexually explicit comments throughout the evening of a company holiday party. No company that has faced allegations like this has gone to such lengths to protect one of its own – it’s truly despicable.

Since being placed on leave, I’ve been subjected to ongoing intimidation and retaliation clearly designed to pressure me into resigning—from immediately removing my name from my office and converting it into a conference room, to trying to coerce me into turning over my private and personal data on my phone. Though I can think of no other company that has actually fired the woman who made sexual assault allegations against an executive—the company’s actions here, including firing me just one day before my remaining options vest, are totally consistent with the way you have circled the wagons around him from day one.

Was the board aware that the company would publicly blame the victim?

When I refused to sign a non-disparagement agreement presented to me by HR, which would have prevented me from speaking publicly about my experience in exchange for compensation, Match snuck an arbitration clause into its employees’ most recent compliance acknowledgements, causing me, Jonathan, James and Josh to have to withdraw from the lawsuit. Know that my former Tinder colleagues and I still vigorously support that lawsuit — IAC and Match cheated us out of what we were promised and rightfully earned in exchange for building Tinder into Barry Diller’s most valuable business. As the lawsuit progresses the evidence will emerge and the world will see how IAC and Match plotted against their employees and rewarded misconduct.

I never imagined that I’d be pushed out of my company for standing up for what is right. But if that is the cost of being on the right side of history, I’ll pay it. As a woman CEO, I truly hope that you reconsider the safety of your remaining female workforce and allow Tinder and other Match owned companies to follow in the footsteps of Uber, Facebook and Google in eliminating forced arbitration for sexual misconduct claims. We deserve better.

Rosette

Mandy’s email:

Dear Rosette,

I’m glad you reached out to me directly and I would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few points, because there seems to be a very real disconnect here that I truly want to fix.

You were not terminated because you reported Greg for sexual harassment. You couldn’t have been, as you never reported Greg for sexual harassment. When Sean Rad brought the subject up nearly five months later, right after the valuation process commenced, it was immediately and thoroughly investigated by the Board, independently without any involvement from Greg, which concluded that no sexual harassment occurred. I was not the CEO at the time, but I know that you were interviewed on at least two separate occasions and you never alleged sexual harassment.

On the topic of sexual harassment at Tinder, you know how seriously reports are taken. You yourself reported two other male colleagues, whom Sean Rad hired, and they were very quickly dismissed. Clearly, it was taken very seriously given the company terminated those individuals. More importantly though, Greg is no longer here. I am. And I promise you, we do not retaliate against anyone who reports sexual harassment. Your position was never at risk due to any sexual harassment complaints. I wanted to find a way to keep you employed at Tinder.

As explained in the letter we sent you, you were terminated because it was not possible for you to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of your role as Tinder’s spokesperson for a number of reasons, including your public position against the company over a valuation process. We also recently asked you to come to the office for a meeting with the HR department to discuss work-related activities and policies and were told that we can only contact you through your attorneys. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for you to do your work at Tinder if all communications related to your job have to go through your lawyers. As it relates to your personal information, any suggestion that we have been trying to access it is just not true. Like any company, we’ve asked for you, and all other employees involved, to return company laptops, phones and other devices to us. And unfortunately, we couldn’t retrieve a number of company devices from you and the others since you claimed that they were coincidentally all lost or damaged just before you decided to sue the company.

There are two last points I want to make: on the point about your equity, those options have already been accelerated, and should be exercisable in your account, along with the other equity awards that have vested since August. However, on the arbitration agreements, there is no NDA in them and we never tried to force you to sign a non-disparagement agreement. You’re free to talk about anything publicly that you’d like. You have already done so and that’s your prerogative. But the arbitration agreement is attached again. As you already know from when you signed it, it’s clearly labeled “Agreement to Arbitrate.”

I am a strong female advocate and have said to the women in the organization that as a female CEO in charge, I have zero tolerance for bad behavior and I am very much invested in every single employee’s success. If you’d like to discuss any of the above, or have a productive dialogue, I am here and will make myself available for an in person meeting. Just let me know.

]]>http://techietricks.com/tinder-fires-its-head-of-comms-following-her-participation-in-a-2-billion-lawsuit-against-match/feed/0Facebook gave Spotify and Netflix access to users’ private messageshttp://techietricks.com/facebook-gave-spotify-and-netflix-access-to-users-private-messages/
http://techietricks.com/facebook-gave-spotify-and-netflix-access-to-users-private-messages/#respondWed, 19 Dec 2018 04:49:15 +0000http://techietricks.com/facebook-gave-spotify-and-netflix-access-to-users-private-messages/What to make of the New York Times’ latest story about Facebook’s broad data-sharing agreements? The story, which draws on internal documents describing the company’s partnerships, reports on previously undisclosed aspects of business partnerships with companies including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Spotify, and Netflix. In some cases, companies had access to data years after it was …

What to make of the New York Times’ latest story about Facebook’s broad data-sharing agreements? The story, which draws on internal documents describing the company’s partnerships, reports on previously undisclosed aspects of business partnerships with companies including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Spotify, and Netflix. In some cases, companies had access to data years after it was supposed to have been cut off.

Here’s how the story is framed by reporters Gabriel J.X. Dance, Michael LaForgia, and Nicholas Confessore:

The documents, as well as interviews with about 50 former employees of Facebook and its corporate partners, reveal that Facebook allowed certain companies access to data despite those protections. They also raise questions about whether Facebook ran afoul of a 2011 consent agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that barred the social network from sharing user data without explicit permission.

In all, the deals described in the documents benefited more than 150 companies — most of them tech businesses, including online retailers and entertainment sites, but also automakers and media organizations. Their applications sought the data of hundreds of millions of people a month, the records show. The deals, the oldest of which date to 2010, were all active in 2017. Some were still in effect this year.

The story, which builds on reporting earlier this year from both the Times and the Wall Street Journal, describes a variety of data-sharing partnerships, some of which users were likely unaware of. They include:

Giving Apple access to users’ Facebook contacts and calendar entries, even if they had disabled data sharing, as part of a partnership that still exists. Apple told the Times it was unaware that it had special access, and of the data described would never leave the user’s device.

Giving Amazon the names and contact information of users, in a partnership that is currently being wound down. Amazon wouldn’t discuss how it used the data other than to say it had used it “appropriately.” On Twitter, Gizmodo’s Kashmir Hill speculated that Amazon may have used the data to fight review fraud.

Giving Bing, the Microsoft search engine, access to see names and other profile information of a user’s friends. Microsoft said it has since deleted the data. Facebook says that only user data set to “public” was accessible to Microsoft.

Giving Spotify, Netflix, and the Royal Bank of Canada the ability to read users’ private Facebook messages.

The access described in the Times story falls into three types of Facebook partnerships. The first are what Facebook calls “integrations,” and they refer to custom-built apps that Facebook built for OEMs like BlackBerry. Because they were integrated with phone operating systems, they require a broad exchange of data with OEMs. They’ve gotten a lot of attention this year, but I think most users would reasonably assume that their personal data was being exchanged with the phone manufacturer in those cases.

The second type of partnerships, which is represented by the Bing deal, are part of a now-defunct program called “instant personalization.” This feature, which launched in 2010, opted every Facebook user in by default. It allowed all of its partners to personalize their own services using whatever Facebook knew about you and was willing to share. Yelp, for example, would show visitors which of their Facebook friends used the site when they visited.

The program drew significant criticism when it launched, and it was eventually killed off in 2014. But according to the Times, Bing continued to have access to the data through 2017, and two other companies still had access this summer. On one hand, this was all public data — friends’ names, hometowns, and that sort of thing. On the other hand, Facebook’s failure to shut down data access here is reminiscent of the failure that sparked the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal: a company said it had deleted a bunch of user data turned out to have instead used it in an influence to sway the 2016 presidential election.

The final type of partnerships are essentially one-off deals that Facebook made over the years. The scariest-sounding of them all was a deal Facebook made with companies including Spotify, Netflix, and the Royal Bank of Canada in which partners were granted read and write access to users’ Facebook messages. This was the result of a broadly written API, launched in 2010 as part of an early (pre-Messenger) effort to build a messaging platform. In Spotify’s case, for example, the company plugged into your chat window to send songs to your friends. It seems possible that a rogue employee made mischief in someone’s messages, but the Times story doesn’t include any examples.

There are other worrisome details in the Times story, including reports that Yahoo and the Russian search company Yandex both retained access to user data years after it was supposed to have been cut off. Collectively, they speak to an indifference toward data security that flies in the face of recent Facebook pronouncements on the subject — most notably, chief marketing officer Carolyn Everson’s statement last week that privacy “is the foundation of our company.” Everson made her comments on the same day that Facebook opened a pop-up kiosk in New York City’s Bryant Park where users could ask questions about how their data is used on the platform.

Presumably, they would have had more questions to ask if they had access to the list of 150 companies that had been making data partnerships with Facebook over the past decade.

In response to the Times’ report, the company acknowledged it had more work to do to regain user trust. It also highlighted some of the benefits of data sharing, including the ability to create more personalized experiences on other sites and services.

“Facebook’s partners don’t get to ignore people’s privacy settings, and it’s wrong to suggest that they do,” said Steve Satterfield, director of privacy and public policy at Facebook, in an email. “Over the years, we’ve partnered with other companies so people can use Facebook on devices and platforms that we don’t support ourselves. Unlike a game, streaming music service, or other third-party app, which offer experiences that are independent of Facebook, these partners can only offer specific Facebook features and are unable to use information for independent purposes.”

I find it helpful to read the allegations in the Times’ story chronologically, starting with the integration deals, continuing with the one-off agreements, and ending with instant personalization. Do so and you read a story of a company that, after some early success growing its user base by making broad data-sharing agreements with one set of companies — OEMs — it grew more confident, and proceeded to give away more and more, often with few disclosures to users. By the time “Instant personalization” arrived, it was widely panned, and never met Facebook’s hopes for it. Shortly after it was wound down, Facebook would take action against Cambridge Analytica, and once again began placing meaningful limitations on its API.

WONT USE GOOGLE,GETTING RID OF FACEBOOK ACCOUNT I DIDNT KNOW I HAD.WOULD GET RID OF TWITTER IF IT WASN’T 4 OF YOU.THESE COMPANIES HAVE NO ALLEGIANCE TO,OR OF ANYTHING BUT MONEY . THEY MIGHT AS WELL BE CONSPIRING WITH RUSSIA TO DESTROY OUR DEMOCRACY.WHERESOF

Here are two last things to chew over as we think about this story in the coming days. One, it’s now clear that a data partnership with Facebook can create reputational risks for the companies making the deals. Every company named in the report will be held account for the Times’ findings, and they better have good and thorough answers when shareholders, lawmakers, and reporters start asking.

]]>http://techietricks.com/facebook-gave-spotify-and-netflix-access-to-users-private-messages/feed/0How to watch four rocket launches on a banner day for the space industryhttp://techietricks.com/how-to-watch-four-rocket-launches-on-a-banner-day-for-the-space-industry/
http://techietricks.com/how-to-watch-four-rocket-launches-on-a-banner-day-for-the-space-industry/#respondWed, 19 Dec 2018 03:48:15 +0000https://techietricks.com/how-to-watch-four-rocket-launches-on-a-banner-day-for-the-space-industry/The space industry is rocketing through the last few weeks of 2018. And on Wednesday, December 19th, there are four rockets slated to launch from locations all over the globe. Thanks to how the orbital mechanics of these flights worked out, you could potentially watch a launch during breakfast, lunch, and dinner (depending on when …

The space industry is rocketing through the last few weeks of 2018. And on Wednesday, December 19th, there are four rockets slated to launch from locations all over the globe. Thanks to how the orbital mechanics of these flights worked out, you could potentially watch a launch during breakfast, lunch, and dinner (depending on when you eat your meals, of course).

Originally, most of these four launches were supposed to get underway on Tuesday, December 18th. But thanks to incredible luck (and unfavorable weather conditions), practically all of the rockets scheduled to launch yesterday got delayed. And one of them, Blue Origin’s test flight, has been pushed back to Friday.

Here are the four rocket missions set for takeoff on Wednesday, including what they’re launching and how to watch them.

First Breakfast: ISRO’s GSLV

What is it launching? India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization, is launching one of its GSLV rockets tomorrow, which will carry a communications satellite called GSAT-7A. The satellite is the 35th communication spacecraft built by ISRO and will provide coverage over India.

Where is this happening?The GSLV is lifting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the southeast coast of India.

Anything else? Unlike the flights below, this mission was always scheduled to launch on Wednesday, December 19th. So it hasn’t suffered any 24-hour delays (yet).

Second Breakfast: SpaceX’s Falcon 9

What is it launching?SpaceX is launching its latest national security payload for the US Air Force — a satellite called GPS III SV01. The satellite was originally scheduled to fly on a Delta IV rocket made by the United Launch Alliance, but the Air Force decided to switch it over to a Falcon 9. Once in orbit, the satellite will join the current constellation used for GPS, ensuring it stays operational.

Where is this happening?The mission is taking place from SpaceX’s launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

When can I watch?SpaceX’s launch window lasts from 9:07AM ET to 9:33AM ET, so the Falcon 9 can take off within that timeframe. Typically, the company’s live streams get started 15 to 20 minutes prior to takeoff. Originally this launch was meant to happen around the same time on Tuesday, butSpaceX had to delay after a strange sensor reading triggered an abort of the final countdown sequence.

Anything else?Unfortunately for SpaceX fans, there won’t be a signature Falcon 9 landing after this flight. SpaceX needs all the fuel it can muster to get this satellite to space, so the company isn’t saving any leftover propellant to perform a landing. The rocket doesn’t have any landing legs or grid fins needed for steering, ensuring this vehicle is going bye bye after launch.

But, this flight does mark the last mission of the year for SpaceX, and if it’s successful, it will bring the company’s total 2018 launch count to 21. That’s the most missions SpaceX has ever done in a year, beating a record 18 launches from 2017.

(Early) Lunch: Arianespace’s Soyuz

What is it launching? Europe’s main launch provider, Arianespace, is sending up a military satellite for France, using a Soyuz rocket. The satellite is called CSO-1, and it’s the first of three identical satellites that France will use for surveillance, imaging the Earth for national security. The satellite will also be accessible to multiple European nations, including Germany, Sweden, and Belgium. Italy may even join in the near future.

Where is this happening? The flight is taking place from Arianespace’s South American launch facility in French Guiana.

When can I watch? Liftoff is scheduled for 11:37AM ET, and Arianespace should have a live stream on its YouTube channel before takeoff. The company rescheduled the launch from Tuesday, due to high winds in the upper altitudes over the launch site.

Anything else? This is also Arianespace’s last launch of the year, bringing the company’s total missions to 11 for 2018.

(Late) Dinner: ULA’s Delta IV Heavy

What is it launching? The military’s primary launch provider, the United Launch Alliance, is planning to launch its most powerful vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy. On the rocket is a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office called NROL-71. Since it’s classified we don’t know much about it, though we do have one of the NRO’s intense mission patches — which sports an angry-looking eagle.

Where is this happening? The Delta IV Heavy is slated to take off out of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

When can I watch? The launch is set for 8:44PM ET. Originally, this mission was supposed to happen two weeks ago, but ULA ran into a number of issues leading up to the flight. It was then scheduled for Tuesday, but had to be pushed until Wednesday due to high ground winds.

Anything else? As is the case for all the above companies, this is the last launch of the year for ULA. If it goes up, it will be the company’s ninth mission of 2018.

Special dessert on Friday: Blue Origin’s New Shepard

What is launching?Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight venture Blue Origin plans to do another test flight this week, as early as Tuesday morning. The company is planning to fly its New Shepard suborbital rocket again. The vehicle is designed to fly to the edge of space, and then land back on Earth. Ultimately, Blue Origin wants to fly tourists to space with the vehicle, and the company has been flying the New Shepard multiple times in preparation of the first crewed flights.

This flight won’t be carrying people, but it will carry a handful of research payloads from various universities and NASA centers — a deal arranged through NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program. One will measure the electromagnetic fields surrounding the New Shepard vehicle during flight, while another will test out how to measure rocket fuel in microgravity. And if the flight is like previous New Shepard launches, it seems likely the company will have a test dummy on board — one appropriately named Mannequin Skywalker.

Where is this happening?Blue Origin flies the New Shepard out of the company’s launch facility in Van Horn, Texas.

When can I watch? Blue Origin will have a live stream of the flight. The once very secretive company used to never stream test flights, but then started to get into the habit of live-streaming them a few years ago. Blue Origin is aiming for no earlier than Friday, December 21st, and should have a livestream closer to launch time. The test flight was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but Blue Origin halted the mission due to some issues with the launch infrastructure on the ground. The company is still working with those problems, which is why a later date is needed.

Anything else? This will be the third test flight of the year for Blue Origin, potentially with the same New Shepard vehicle. Blue Origin retired its last New Shepard in 2016, after launching and landing it five times. Since then, the company has been flying an upgraded version of the New Shepard that is easier to reuse and sports actual windows. That particular vehicle has launched three times so far, and this week, it could go to space and back a fourth time.

However, we’re still waiting for the next big milestone: when people fly on a New Shepard for the first time. Blue Origin is aiming for that to take place in 2019, and will use a brand-new vehicle for the job — one that is rated for carrying crew. That vehicle, the fourth New Shepard rocket that the company will fly, is already at Blue Origin’s West Texas launch facility.

The perfect storm

Four launches in a day may seem like a lot, but this isn’t the first time we’ve had such a gathering of rockets before. In fact, there have been at least three instances in which four rockets have launched to orbit within a 24-hour period, according Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard and avid spaceflight statistician. The most recent perfect storm happened in 1989, says McDowell, when a Japanese H-1 rocket, two Soyuz rockets, and a US Titan 23G rocket launched to orbit between September 5th and September 6th.

All of those rockets went to orbit, though. When it comes to suborbital records, those are much different. There have been times when upwards of 30 suborbital sounding rockets have launched from the same site within the same day, says McDowell. Still, four orbital missions in a day is fairly rare, and if all of these flights go up Wednesday, we may match the four-launch record for the first time in 29 years.

Luckily, space enthusiasts might not have to wait so long for the next four-launch day. There are dozens of orbital launch sites all over the globe, and more and more commercial players entering the field. And when you add in suborbital players like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, that only increases the chances of simultaneous launch dates. With all that activity, days of four-plus launches are a definite possibility in the future.

Update December 18th, 3:15PM ET: At various times throughout the day on Tuesday, December 18th, four rockets scheduled for launch had to be pushed back until Wednesday.

]]>http://techietricks.com/how-to-watch-four-rocket-launches-on-a-banner-day-for-the-space-industry/feed/0Samsung’s stylish The Frame and Serif 4K TVs will soon come in more sizes with better picture qualityhttp://techietricks.com/samsungs-stylish-the-frame-and-serif-4k-tvs-will-soon-come-in-more-sizes-with-better-picture-quality/
http://techietricks.com/samsungs-stylish-the-frame-and-serif-4k-tvs-will-soon-come-in-more-sizes-with-better-picture-quality/#respondWed, 19 Dec 2018 02:47:19 +0000https://techietricks.com/samsungs-stylish-the-frame-and-serif-4k-tvs-will-soon-come-in-more-sizes-with-better-picture-quality/Ahead of CES, Samsung is announcing upcoming refreshes of its two most stylish 4K TVs, The Frame and Serif. These are lifestyle pieces that aim to make people rethink what a TV can and should look like. They don’t offer Samsung’s best picture performance — that’s still reserved for the proper QLED lineup — but …

Ahead of CES, Samsung is announcing upcoming refreshes of its two most stylish 4K TVs, The Frame and Serif. These are lifestyle pieces that aim to make people rethink what a TV can and should look like. They don’t offer Samsung’s best picture performance — that’s still reserved for the proper QLED lineup — but they’re definitely good for attracting conversation in the home.

The Frame is being upgraded with an improved picture over its previous two iterations. The 2019 model will feature Samsung’s quantum dot display technology for a wider HDR color palette. Aside from offering a better picture, The Frame will also now come in a new 49-inch size. (Last year’s edition came in 43-, 55-, and 65-inch sizes.) Samsung markets The Frame to people who prefer that their TV not be the central focal point of a living room; it’s supposed to blend in with your decor and look like a framed work of art when the TV is off. In Art Mode, The Frame adapts to a room’s lighting so that the content on screen looks more natural. You can choose from hundreds of art pieces collected from several museums to assemble your preferred screensaver playlist. Subscribing to the Art Store costs $4.99 per month.

Samsung

Samsung says this type of inviting design is important to millennials, and the company claims The Frame has been “wildly successful” — even surpassing its flagship QLED models in the minds of consumers who put style above most else.

Like the 2018 set, the 2019 Frame will include Samsung’s One Connect box, which separates all the major connectivity ports (HDMI, power, etc.) from the main TV and runs everything up to The Frame through a single cable. And Bixby is built in.

You can customize The Frame’s bezel to your liking.Samsung

The Serif goes even further than The Frame as a design statement. It’s a TV that, in the words of a Samsung executive during a recent press briefing, “looks nothing like a TV.” It can basically double as a piece of furniture; there’s a shelf on top. A fabric cover conceals the port selection around back. For 2019, Samsung plans to offer it in three display sizes: 43 inches, 49 inches, and 55 inches. (The first model only came in a 40-inch size.) It also uses Samsung’s QLED tech — never to be confused with OLED.

Samsung’s Serif TV has a shelf on top to help it better blend in with surrounding furniture.Samsung

Samsung sold the original Serif at the MoMA Design Store and high-end furniture stores instead of, say, your local Best Buy. It was intended for rooms and environments where customers might ordinarily not want a traditional TV set breaking up the vibe. Availability will extend to electronics retailers in 2019, so Serif should be just as easy to come by as The Frame.

These TVs are just as much about aesthetics as they are function. But they each run Samsung’s Tizen software and have the usual mix of popular streaming apps.

Specific pricing and availability details are to come; I’d peg these for sometime in the spring, and they’ll go for well over $1,000. You’ll have to wait until CES for the full reveal of Samsung’s flagship 2019 QLED lineup (and whatever else the company might have planned in the way of MicroLED sets and other products). The new Serif and The Frame will be on display at the show, so stay tuned for impressions on Samsung’s upgrades.

]]>http://techietricks.com/samsungs-stylish-the-frame-and-serif-4k-tvs-will-soon-come-in-more-sizes-with-better-picture-quality/feed/0Google updated its Street View Trekker to look slightly less dorkyhttp://techietricks.com/google-updated-its-street-view-trekker-to-look-slightly-less-dorky/
http://techietricks.com/google-updated-its-street-view-trekker-to-look-slightly-less-dorky/#respondWed, 19 Dec 2018 01:46:11 +0000http://techietricks.com/google-updated-its-street-view-trekker-to-look-slightly-less-dorky/Over the years, Google has loaned out its Street View camera to photographers, travelers, and organizations to bring 360-degree imagery of cultural landmarks to Google Maps. Today, the company announced it’s taken the feedback from partners who have used the Trekker, as the camera rig is called, around the world and updated it with their …

Over the years, Google has loaned out its Street View camera to photographers, travelers, and organizations to bring 360-degree imagery of cultural landmarks to Google Maps. Today, the company announced it’s taken the feedback from partners who have used the Trekker, as the camera rig is called, around the world and updated it with their suggestions. The new Street View Trekker is lighter, sleeker, and the cameras have been updated with increased aperture and higher-resolution sensors.

The Trekker is versatile enough to be worn like a backpack, or placed on top of everything from cars to boats to zip-lines. It’s especially useful for exploring areas that might otherwise be difficult to travel to with a Street View-equipped car, as well as for building maps for developing countries and cities. Below, you can see what the Trekker used to look like on the left, and the updated version on the right.

]]>http://techietricks.com/google-updated-its-street-view-trekker-to-look-slightly-less-dorky/feed/0What it means that the Surgeon General now calls vaping an ‘epidemic’http://techietricks.com/what-it-means-that-the-surgeon-general-now-calls-vaping-an-epidemic/
http://techietricks.com/what-it-means-that-the-surgeon-general-now-calls-vaping-an-epidemic/#respondWed, 19 Dec 2018 00:45:10 +0000https://techietricks.com/what-it-means-that-the-surgeon-general-now-calls-vaping-an-epidemic/The US Surgeon General just declared youth vaping an epidemic, and called out e-cigarette giant Juul as part of the problem in an advisory today. The Surgeon General’s declaration isn’t a new policy or enforcement action against vape companies or retailers. But it is a call to action that follows news that teen vaping is …

The US Surgeon General just declared youth vaping an epidemic, and called out e-cigarette giant Juul as part of the problem in an advisory today. The Surgeon General’s declaration isn’t a new policy or enforcement action against vape companies or retailers. But it is a call to action that follows news that teen vaping is skyrocketing.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams’ advisory lays out why teen vaping is a public health concern: nicotine can mess with the developing brain, it’s addictive, and the chemicals in e-cigarette vapor may be unhealthy to inhale. The advisory says a recent surge in teen vaping “has been fueled by new types of e-cigarettes that have recently entered the market,” and calls out vape giant Juul for its high nicotine doses.

“They are only issued rarely, when immediate action is called for.”

The Surgeon General’s power is more about influence, and less about enforcement: the real regulatory power over vaping comes from the Food and Drug Administration. So this advisory doesn’t have any legal force, Micah Berman, a professor of health services management and policy at The Ohio State University, tells The Verge in an email. “They are a tool used by the Surgeon General to call attention to an issue and to provide guidance to the public,” Berman says. “They are only issued rarely, when immediate action is called for — which is what makes them so noteworthy.”

The advisory asks parents, teachers, and health care providers to talk to teens about vaping, and why it’s risky. It also urges state, local, and tribal governments to create clean air policies, curb the sale of flavored e-cigarette products, and prevent advertising campaigns aimed at young people. “Our nation’s doctor sees this as a problem,” says Brian King at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health, who worked on today’s advisory. “We ultimately hope [this] will galvanize folks at multiple levels, particularly at the state and local level.”

Juul was specifically name-dropped in the report because of its dominance over the e-cigarette market. “We’ve seen skyrocketing rates of sales of Juul within the past several years,” King says. The advisory notes that Juul’s sales climbed 600 percent between 2016 and 2017. The company’s market dominance combined with a spike in teen vaping leads to an alarming conclusion, according to King: “These specific USB-shaped products, including Juul, are helping to drive this marked increase we’ve seen among our nation’s youth,” he says.

That’s in part because Juul uses a form of nicotine that’s less harsh, and therefore less unpleasant to people who aren’t used to inhaling the stuff, King says. “That’s particularly problematic when we’re talking about young people,” he says. In response to the Surgeon General’s advisory today, Juul spokesperson Victoria Davis says in a statement that Juul wants to prevent young people from vaping. “We cannot fulfill our mission to provide the world’s one billion adult smokers with a true alternative to combustible cigarettes if youth use continues unabated.”

“Using the e-word, epidemic, takes it to a higher level.”

The advisory adds the Surgeon General’s voice to a growing chorus of alarm-sounding from public health agencies. It refers to e-cigarette use among young people as an “epidemic,” which echoes language used by the FDA. It also follows in the wake of back-to-back reports of skyrocketing rates of teen e-cigarette use. Last month, the CDC and the FDA reported a 78 percent increase in vaping among high school students compared to last year. And yesterday, the nationwide Monitoring the Future survey reported that 21 percent of high school seniors say they vaped nicotine in the past 30 days — up from 11 percent last year. “These are simply unprecedented increases that we’re seeing,” King says.

That’s why it’s particularly significant that the Surgeon General is using the word “epidemic,” says Kathleen Hoke, a professor specializing in public health law at the University of Maryland: “Using the e-word, epidemic, takes it to a higher level. From a public health perspective, we try not to use that word unless it’s warranted — otherwise you have the boy cried wolf,” she says. But she says, according to these health officials, youth vaping has reached that level: “It’s broad, vast in its impacts, and of deep concern about its lasting effects.”

]]>http://techietricks.com/what-it-means-that-the-surgeon-general-now-calls-vaping-an-epidemic/feed/0Spam calls grew 300 percent worldwide in 2018, according to Truecallerhttp://techietricks.com/spam-calls-grew-300-percent-worldwide-in-2018-according-to-truecaller/
http://techietricks.com/spam-calls-grew-300-percent-worldwide-in-2018-according-to-truecaller/#respondTue, 18 Dec 2018 23:44:12 +0000http://techietricks.com/spam-calls-grew-300-percent-worldwide-in-2018-according-to-truecaller/Spam calls grew by 300 percent worldwide this year, according to a new report from Truecaller, a caller ID service. But while the scourge continues to grow overall, some countries actually saw a slight decline — including the US. The United States fell from the 2nd most spammed country to the 8th in one year, …

Spam calls grew by 300 percent worldwide this year, according to a new report from Truecaller, a caller ID service. But while the scourge continues to grow overall, some countries actually saw a slight decline — including the US.

The United States fell from the 2nd most spammed country to the 8th in one year, according to Truecaller. Truecaller users received about 17 calls per month, down from 21 in 2017. The bulk of calls purported to be about insurance or debt collection, according to the report.

While no reason was given for the drop, authorities have increasingly tried to crack down on illegal callers. The Federal Trade Commission has brought several lawsuits, while the Federal Communications Commission has considered various regulations to deal with the issue and in one case slapped an egregious robocaller with an $82 million fine.

Brazil was the most spammed country

The issue continues to escalate elsewhere. Brazil was found to be the most spammed country in 2018, with the average Truecaller user getting over 37 spam calls a month. This was likely due to calls from telecom operators and calls made related to the general election, the company said. India, which was the most spammed country in 2017, has dropped down to second place, with a decrease of 1.5 percent.

Truecaller says that in total, its users received 17.7 billion spam calls between January and October. The report counted a call as spam if it was flagged by algorithms or manually by users.

Since Truecaller doesn’t count data outside of its customer base, its results and rankings have to be taken with a grain of salt. Another report from a robocall blocking service called YouMail reported 28.5 billion spam calls occurring in the US within the first eight months of this year, a figure that vastly exceeds Truecaller’s numbers and seems more in line with the multiple-calls-per-day nuisance many of us are contending with.

]]>http://techietricks.com/spam-calls-grew-300-percent-worldwide-in-2018-according-to-truecaller/feed/0Lil Yachty joins FaZe Clan, the Supreme of e-sportshttp://techietricks.com/lil-yachty-joins-faze-clan-the-supreme-of-e-sports/
http://techietricks.com/lil-yachty-joins-faze-clan-the-supreme-of-e-sports/#respondTue, 18 Dec 2018 22:43:10 +0000http://techietricks.com/lil-yachty-joins-faze-clan-the-supreme-of-e-sports/Lil Yachty is an award-nominated rapper whose songs have generated him millions of fans around the world. He’s also the newest member of FaZe Clan, a gaming collective that is quickly becoming the Supreme of e-sports. The team officially welcomed Lil Yachty to FaZe Clan during the rapper’s performance at the Rolling Loud festival this …

Lil Yachty is an award-nominated rapper whose songs have generated him millions of fans around the world. He’s also the newest member of FaZe Clan, a gaming collective that is quickly becoming the Supreme of e-sports.

The team officially welcomed Lil Yachty to FaZe Clan during the rapper’s performance at the Rolling Loud festival this past weekend. Yachty invited a number of FaZe members, including RiceGum (a YouTube creator with more than 10 million subscribers) and leader Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengtson up on stage. They then presented him with his own shirt, welcoming “FaZe Boat” to the group. It’s unclear if Yachty has his own line of merchandise coming, or what his exact role within FaZe Clan will be, but he is 100 percent invested in the organization, according to a recent interview, seen below.

Although Yachty is the newest celebrity to team up with FaZe Clan, he’s certainly not the first. Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster has partnered with FaZe Clan and secured his own merchandising line, and went on the international European road trip, called Gumball 3000.

FaZe Clan started in 2010 as a gaming clan that produced elaborate “trickshot” Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II videos on YouTube, and expanded into competitive play a couple of years later with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. It wasn’t until 2016 when FaZe Clan’s owners — Thomas Oliveira, Yousef Abdelfattah, and Nordan Shat — decided to buy a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team that FaZe Clan really started getting into e-sports. Still, they never forgot their YouTube roots.

As FaZe Clan has grown over the years, the gaming clan has morphed into a luxury entertainment brand. FaZe Clan members live in a giant mansion in Hollywood Hills, living side by side with Bengtson’s other YouTube initiative, Clout Gang (a group of popular YouTube vloggers). They maintain personal YouTube channels and Twitch accounts with millions of subscribers. They’ve launched their own merchandise lines, and dropped diss tracks with some of the best on YouTube.

FaZe Clan became the gaming equivalent of a streetwear lifestyle brand; they’re essentially the Supreme of e-sports.

Much like Supreme, a clothing line built on the promise of hype and widely acknowledged coolness, FaZe Clan seems more like a personality and merchandise-focused endeavor than a traditional e-sports brand. FaZe Clan has more in common with traditional streetwear companies than mega e-sports organizations like Evil Geniuses and Cloud9.

FaZe Clan isn’t the only collective teaming up with celebrities to introduce streetwear lifestyle branding to the gaming community. E-sports and lifestyle brand 100 Thieves made headlines recently after Drake and producer Scooter Braun became co-owners of the collective. Much like FaZe Clan and its founding origins, which are rooted in YouTube personality stardom, 100 Thieves was started by Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, an extremely popular YouTube creator.

Also like FaZe Clan, 100 Thieves’ core objective is to produce a line of merchandise akin to other popular streetwear lifestyle apparel. The goal doesn’t seem to be to necessarily win major e-sports tournaments so much as to jump on gaming’s massive audience and player base, and provide a streetwear aesthetic they can wear while out. Merchandising, as YouTube creators know, is everything.

]]>http://techietricks.com/lil-yachty-joins-faze-clan-the-supreme-of-e-sports/feed/0Uber approved to restart self-driving tests in Pennsylvaniahttp://techietricks.com/uber-approved-to-restart-self-driving-tests-in-pennsylvania/
http://techietricks.com/uber-approved-to-restart-self-driving-tests-in-pennsylvania/#respondTue, 18 Dec 2018 21:42:10 +0000https://techietricks.com/uber-approved-to-restart-self-driving-tests-in-pennsylvania/Uber has been given the green light by Pennsylvania officials to restart its self-driving car tests on public roads. The program was shut down last March after a self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. The crash was the first death attributed to a self-driving car, and it was seen as …

Uber has been given the green light by Pennsylvania officials to restart its self-driving car tests on public roads. The program was shut down last March after a self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. The crash was the first death attributed to a self-driving car, and it was seen as a significant setback for the industry, which is racing to get autonomous vehicles into commercial use.

An Uber spokesperson confirmed that PennDOT granted the approval, but cautioned that the company has yet to restart its testing. “We received our letter of authorization, yes but we haven’t put cars back on the road yet,” she said.

“we haven’t put cars back on the road yet.”

In July, Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation issued guidance for safety oversight of highly automated vehicles. The voluntary guidance directs self-driving companies to submit a “notice of testing.” The state will collect data on a semiannual basis, including the approximate miles traveled by a company’s automated vehicles in the state. Around that same time, Uber’s self-driving cars returned to the streets of Pittsburgh, albeit in manual mode only.

In November, Uber released its voluntary safety report to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday. In it, Uber commits to resuming testing with two employees in each autonomous vehicle, enabling automatic braking, and strictly monitoring safety drivers. The company said it now has real-time third-party monitoring of backup safety drivers, it sets limits on the amount of time drivers can work per day, and it has improved training.

]]>http://techietricks.com/uber-approved-to-restart-self-driving-tests-in-pennsylvania/feed/0Space Command is coming back, but Space Force still needs approval from Congresshttp://techietricks.com/space-command-is-coming-back-but-space-force-still-needs-approval-from-congress/
http://techietricks.com/space-command-is-coming-back-but-space-force-still-needs-approval-from-congress/#respondTue, 18 Dec 2018 20:41:10 +0000http://techietricks.com/space-command-is-coming-back-but-space-force-still-needs-approval-from-congress/After a brief pause in Space Force talk from the administration, President Trump signed a memo today directing the Department of Defense to create a new separate combatant command, called Space Command. Additionally, Vice President Mike Pence announced this morning that President Trump plans to sign a directive related to the establishment of the Space …

After a brief pause in Space Force talk from the administration, President Trump signed a memo today directing the Department of Defense to create a new separate combatant command, called Space Command. Additionally, Vice President Mike Pence announced this morning that President Trump plans to sign a directive related to the establishment of the Space Force — a new branch of the military — in the coming days. While the President can create the US Space Command, Congress must still create new legislation in order to establish the Space Force.

The establishment of these two organizations would rearrange the military’s current bureaucracy for handling national security space missions, which mostly revolve around launching satellites for surveillance, communications, and navigation. Currently, the personnel responsible for launching and operating military satellites are spread throughout various branches of the Defense Department, including the US Air Force, the Navy, and the National Reconnaissance Office. The Space Force would take all of these people and put them under their own umbrella, separate from the other branches.

The US Space Command would be the organization in charge of space warfighting, or deciding what types of space assets are needed to help the Defense Department meet its needs. Currently, this is handled through US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), the group mostly responsible for nuclear deterrence. A subunit known as the Joint Force Space Component command handles space. The Trump administration, however, wants to take those personnel and create a complete new combatant command separate from USSTRATCOMM.

The US Space Command isn’t new. This separate combatant command actually existed between 1985 and 2002, before it was combined with USSTRATCOM. And in recent years, lawmakers have mostly agreed that we should return the US Space Command in some form. Congress’ most recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — legislation which outlines the Defense Department’s policies for each year — also called for the creation of a US Space Command, as a subunit of USSTRATCOM. Trump signed the 2019 NDAA into law in August.

The US Space Command isn’t new

So what’s the difference between what the NDAA outlines and what Trump wants to do? It mostly boils down to a different reporting structure. Under the Administration’s plan, the head of a separate US Space Command, a four-star general, would report directly to the US Secretary of Defense and the President. Under the NDAA, the head of a US Space Command would report to the head of USSTRATCOM — currently, General John Hyten. Either way, the priorities will stay the same and the new US Space Command will likely include all of the personnel currently working within the Joint Force Space Component command. “There is a change in authority and it does elevate the position, but practically speaking, day to day, it’s already the same people that are doing this mission,” Brian Weeden, a space expert at the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit that specializes in space security, tells The Verge.

The White House claims that Trump has the authority to create a separate US Space Command under section 161 of title 10 under the United States Code. So it doesn’t seem that Congress needs to act for this to become a reality. However, it’s unclear how this will play out exactly, given that the NDAA outlines a different kind of US Space Command than the one the President wants. The administration’s proposed budget for the command should be unveiled in the president’s budget request for 2020.

Meanwhile, the Space Force definitely still needs an act of Congress to move forward. Its creation was controversial before the midterm elections, and it’s unclear if it will receive much support now that Democrats control the majority in the House of Representatives. The administration also plans to include money for the Space Force in the president’s 2020 budget request. A leaked memo from US Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson suggested that it would cost $3.3 billion for fiscal year 2020 to set up the Space Force.